Accessibility

One issue of great importance is that of accessibility. School web sites
should be easily accessible to a wide range of audiences including persons
with disabilities. By following certain guidelines, your school site can be
made more accessible. A general principle to keep in mind is that all non-text
content (graphics, audio, video) should have a text equivalent.

Visual considerations:

Graphics. Users with visual impairments have specific difficulties
that need to be addressed. Screen reading software is available that transforms
the written word to audio. However, it does have limitations that need to
be considered. This type of software is designed to read text aloud. Therefore,
a common problem involves the translation of graphics or any other non-text
objects such as tables or graphs. A sighted web user sees the picture on
the screen, but a user with a visual impairment needs the screen reader
to translate the image. By including a description of the picture in an
<alt> tag, the screen reader can give the user a description
of the picture. This rule applies to any non-text objects in the site. Be
sure the <alt> tag uses descriptive language. For example, a
graphic that is described as “My School Mascot” is not as descriptive
as “Sunny Skies Elementary School’s Mascot: The Sun.”
Remember that if text is put into a graphic, it is not readable by a screen
reader.

Tables. Tables are particularly difficult for screen readers to
interpret because a table is generally not designed to be read from left
to right. One way to accommodate users with screen readers is to add table
header identifiers <TH id> to the HTML code. This facilitates the
reading of the table in a way that makes sense to the user. Tables should
also include a summary.

Font size. Font size is an important issue to keep in mind when
those with limited vision visit your site. It is best to use relative font
size instead of absolute. For example, if you want to use larger text, use
<font size="+2"> in your HTML code instead of <font size="16">.
By doing this, users are able to maintain their own size preferences.

Color. Visitors to your site who have difficulty distinguishing
color should also be considered. When designing your site, use colors that
have high contrast. For example, use a light background with dark text.
This also facilitates printing. Color blindness is another issue to consider
and more information can be found at Vischeck.
This site also allows you to see what your site will look like to a person
with a color deficiency.

Hearing considerations.
Video and audio are great additions to a site. Users with hearing impairments
can be accommodated by adding captions directly to the video or a transcript
of the audio that can be accessed separately. In other words, video and audio
should be accompanied by equivalent text versions.

Language issues.
When writing for the Web, it is important to consider how your words will
be interpreted. For example, your students may be from other countries and
their parents may speak a first language other that English. Therefore, it
is important that the wording you use be very clear. Clarity can be improved
by avoiding slang or jargon unfamiliar to non-native English speakers. Writing
out acronyms is also helpful.

Checking your site for accessibility.
When your site is complete, you should have
it reviewed for accessibility. One site, Bobby, reviews your web site,
analyzes its accessibility, and provides feedback on parts that do not
meet specific criteria. This site can be found at http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp.
If all pages on your web site are without accessibility
errors, you may display the Bobby Approved icon. A similar site for checking
accessibility is the W3C HTML Validation Service at http://validator.w3.org/.

Safety

When publishing work or information on the Web, it is essential that the
safety of your students be a primary concern, as well as that of your faculty,
administration and staff. It is likely that your school district has precise
policies regarding this issue. The guidelines below are basic and may vary
from your district’s policies. Be sure to check before publishing anything
to your site.

Photographs. Students love to have their photographs published for all to see, but it is
important to keep the students anonymous. Be sure parents have signed a release
to publish their childís photograph. Publish photographs with three or more
students and do not include the studentsí names. Instead, describe the activity
that is taking place.

Personal information.
Do not publish personal information about students or anyone else such as
their home address or phone number. In addition, avoid giving information
about family members or friends.

Student work.
If student work will be published on the site, be sure to have the parentsí
permission to do so. Some school districts allow a studentís first name to
be published as long as a photograph does not accompany it. Keep in mind that
student reports or movies that are published to the Web should not include
any content that gives personal information or identifies a personís daily
routine indicating where they can be found.

Copyright

Teachers and students have a somewhat flexible, but not unlimited, copyright
privilege under the “fair use” clause of the U.S. Copyright Act.
“Fair use” is the means by which educators in nonprofit educational
institutions may use copyrighted works without seeking permission or making
payment to the author or publisher. Teachers and students are also protected
to some extent by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which went into effect
in October 1998. Under current guidelines, teachers and students are able
to make limited use of copyrighted materials for instructional purposes.

Currently, copyright law as it relates to the Internet is vague and being
challenged and reinterpreted on an ongoing basis. However, the guidelines
of the “fair use” clause can be applied to Internet use in the
classroom. Although classroom use allows teachers and students to be creative,
you must be extremely careful. Teachers and students should realize that all
materials found on the Web are protected by the same copyright laws as printed
materials. Copyright protects “original works of authorship” that
are in a tangible form of expression.

Copyrightable works include the following categories:

literary works

musical works, including any accompanying words

dramatic works, including any accompanying music, pantomimes, and choreographic
works

pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

motion pictures and other audiovisual works

sound recordings

architectural works

These categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer programs
and most "compilations" may be registered as "literary works"; maps and architectural
plans may be registered as "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works."

Important questions to ask:

What is the purpose for using the material?

Who is the audience?

How widely will the material be distributed?

Will the material be reproduced?

It is allowable under copyright guidelines to use copyrighted materials for class assignments. Check specific guidelines for the length of time the material can be kept on a web site.

When in doubt, ask.
If you and your students find a graphic or portion of text on the Web that you want to utilize in a class project, locate the source of the web site and email the webmaster to ask permission for use of their material. Some web site owners are happy for you to "borrow" their graphics and words. Some ask that you give them credit and others do not. Although your students may be too young to comprehend copyright law, they can understand the concept of respecting someone elseís property.

Promoting Your Site

Now that you have produced a terrific school site, you need to help visitors
find it. As a first step, youíll want to add your schoolís URL to newsletters,
flyers, business cards and other printed material. You should also attempt to
get your site listed with the major search engines. This process involves both
preparing your pages and then submitting them to the search engines and directories.

The most important consideration is to include focused content on each page—something
that was already stressed in the writing section. Secondly you should include
both <keyword> and <description> meta tags within your <head>
</head> tags. For the <keyword> meta tag, list important key phrases
that people might search for when looking for your site. Do not needlessly repeat
words in the <keyword> meta tag—that may get your site kicked out
of the search engines altogether! If there is a common misspelling of one of
your key terms, include that in the list as well. (Don’t worry. The misspelling
will not appear on your page!) For the <description> meta tag, write a
concise summary of the page to appear in the search engine’s results list.
The <keyword> and <description> meta tags for the Sunny Skies homepage
might look something like this: